i just received a new pair of shoes .
the blackspot sneaker v2.0.
they are "earth friendly, anti-sweatshop, cruelty free, and pro grassroots, blackspots are the only rough-and-ready shoes designed to give toxic megacorporations what they truely need the most: a swift kick in the brand".
with my shoes i also received a BLACKSPOT SNEAKER SHAREHOLDER CERTIFICATE.
it said:
DEAR BLACKSPOTTER,
You are now the owner of a pair of blackspot sneakers. I hope you feel a real sense of empowerment as you slip them on and, like so many others before you, embark on a life charged up with social activism.
The anti-logo, hand drawn on the side of your blackspots, is a symbol of resistance againt multinational hyper-branders like Nike that, over the past few years, have come to dominate so much of our lives. The red tip, hand painted on the nose of your sneaker, is for kicking mega-corporate ass and transforming the sneaker industry, and indeed capitalism isself, into more diverse, grassroots affairs.
By buying this pair of sneakers you become a voting member of The Blackspot Anticorporation. When you log onto blackspotsneaker.org you can use your unique shareholder number as your password and vote on the style of our future sneakers, what materials to use, where to make them, how to market them and how the profits will be used. The ultimate goal? An exciting, shareholder driven enterprise with our own co-op factories and retail outlets around the world.
If we succeed in this venture, we will have set a precedent that can transform other industries. Imagine: an independent blackspot music label that cuts into Big Music's share. Or a chain of blackspot restaurants that takes business away from McDonald's by serving only locally-produced food. Bit by bit, I predict that our open source anti-logo will grow into the most powerful brand in the world.
We hold no copyright on the blackspot anti-logo. Take it and use it. Together we will create an authentic, non corporate cool and change the way the world does business.
signed by Kalle Lasn (CEO of The Blackspot Anticorporation).
in a separate leaflet they say that in their opinion the next evolutionary stage of capitalism is one where small will trump big, local will beat global, and shared open source brands like blackspot will triumph over jealously guarded COPYRIGHTS.
while very naive this is an impressive effort. and so far looks well executed. i think the anti-corporate message will be one hard to sell to the masses, so it is very likely an anti-logo type venture can be successful on the fringes and adopted by trendsetters, but will have hard time breaking beyond that niche.
a more likely scenario is one where the corporation will be smart enough to bank on the trend, and adopt it themselves. a good example being Whole Foods in the organic food industry.
in any case i plan to support these guys in their ass-kicking efforts.
